


In The Beginning

by YamiSnuffles



Series: Too Much of a Good Thing [1]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Both Angels, Alternate Universe - Crowley Didn't Fall (Good Omens), Angel Crowley (Good Omens), Crowley Doesn't Fall, Crowley Was Not Raphael Before Falling (Good Omens), Gen, Neither Does Aziraphale, Snake Crowley (Good Omens)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 22:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21186920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YamiSnuffles/pseuds/YamiSnuffles
Summary: There once was an angel who didn’t fall. He didn’t make a million mile freestyle dive into a pool of boiling sulphur. He didn’t even saunter vaguely downward, so much as vaguely… leftward. When the Almighty started to get snippy with his never ending questions, he drifted back to the stars. When it seemed like things were coming to a head and the other angels started to fight, he got right out of the way. He fell back into the vast expanse of space to wait things out.-Or, a seraph named Salathiel (who would later be known as Crowley), visits the garden of Eden.





	In The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> The first part of a series of one shots exploring a universe where both Crowley and Aziraphale are angels.

There once was an angel who didn’t fall. He didn’t make a million mile freestyle dive into a pool of boiling sulphur. He didn’t even saunter vaguely downward, so much as vaguely… leftward. When the Almighty started to get snippy with his never ending questions, he drifted back to the stars. When it seemed like things were coming to a head and the other angels started to fight, he got right out of the way. He fell back into the vast expanse of space to wait things out.

It wasn’t bad out there. In fact, he enjoyed it for a while. He settled in between a pair of binary stars, his light one with theirs as their light was one with each other. They were good company as far as stars went. Better at the moment, at least, than his fellow angels. Half of them would drag him into a battle he’d rather have no part of and the other half, well, probably the same for different reasons. Not that he couldn’t see why the rebels had started to take issue with the way things were. If he couldn’t understand, he wouldn’t have so many questions.

The problem was, those questions didn’t go away while he hid. If anything, as angels Fell and became demons and as more of God’s newest creation was unveiled, the questions increased. When he finally poked in a bit closer to get a good look at it all, he found there were dark whispers that it was all just another step in the War, that this was all a means to an end in settling the battle between Good and Evil. Salathiel, seraph and star maker, couldn’t imagine that could really be the case… could it? She was a bit inscrutable, sure, but She couldn’t want more of that. But that was another question and he’d seen what happened to angels who questioned Her. Orl, seen as well as one could, tucked neatly into a nebula as he’d been in the final moments of the War.

There was only one way to get answers and that was to find them for himself.

“Right, I’ll just… hop down and check things out. She couldn’t object to that, could She? Just some sightseeing.” Salathiel’s molten gold eyes jumped from star to star, as if expecting someone to appear and object. He swallowed hard and squared his shoulders. “Yeah, nothing to it. Just a quick pop into the garden. Nothing so bad about that.”

He waited another moment for the universe to protest. No one said a word. Heaven had bigger things to worry about than one stray seraph, what with humans up and about in Eden. Hell was too busy trying to figure out how to stir up trouble to concern themselves with a single angel who might have been in their ranks if he hadn’t decided, nah, actually, I’ll sit this one out. She was watching because She was always watching but She decided to stay quiet on the matter. It was a new thing She was trying for some ineffable reason.

“No reason to go through official channels, though,” Salathiel said, rolling his shoulders and giving a flap of his six wings. “Lots of paperwork, that, and it would just be trouble for everyone.”

Having at last properly talked himself into the thing, there was no looking back. He flew through the stars and addressed them each by name as he passed. He made a playful loop about the sun that slung him down to Earth. He closed his eyes and revelled in the feel of the atmosphere against his skin. It was so different from the void of space that he’d grown used to. He could feel the air, the infinitesimal pull of water droplets on his feathers as he broke through fluffy white clouds.

He opened his eyes and pulled to a stop far enough away to take in the whole of Eden. He looked at it with eyes sharp enough to pierce the furthest reaches of the universe when he wanted. While he didn’t need to see quite that far, he delighted in what he saw through the thick canopy and in the glimmering water. He loved his stars more than he loved himself but this was something different. It was lush and living. It had a pulse all its own. Ants marched in lines. Wolves sang out their joy. A giraffe was brought level with the trees by its ungainly neck. A chameleon slipped from the speckled brown of bark to dull grey when it decided to sun itself. And then there were the birds. Oh the birds, they brought a homesick pang to Salathiel’s chest as they darted to and fro on wings of every color. There seemed one for each angel in Heaven above and even for those now down below.

And all that was to say nothing of the garden itself. There was so much green, of so many kinds. There were dark, waxy emeralds, violent bursts of chartreuse, and variegated combinations of every shade in between. Even Salathiel’s prized nebulae seemed lacking in comparison to some corners of this paradise. He had to get in for a closer look. All the better, too, because he’d come for answers and the longer he lingered, the greater the chance that he was dragged back to Heaven before he got them. He found an open patch of dewy grass and dropped down on it like a rock. Instead of being soft and springy, he was surprised to find it was slimy and gross and sort of squidgy between his toes. His nose twitched. It also smelled… evil?

He froze and became aware of a rasping, muffled sound. He picked up his left foot, only somewhat surprised to find a strange face underneath. Salathiel calmly raised one crimson eyebrow.

“What was that?”

“I said get off me you stupid- _ eep _!”

Salathiel shook his head. “What kind of self respecting demon says, ‘eep’?” he drawled.

“I didn’t… you surprised me,” the demon sputtered. They had one arm free of the dark, rich soil and tried to pull themself the rest of the way out to recover some of its remaining dignity but the angel’s other foot still pinned them in place. So they settled for huffing and glowering. “You’re not supposed to be here. There’s only the one angel and he’s off on top of the wall over there.”

Salathiel’s heart jumped. His eyes flicked upward but the heavens were still silent. He looked then to the wall and the angel that indeed held vigil there. That angel wasn’t looking but could turn at any moment, especially if there was a demon shouting about angels who were doing things they ought not. Shit! How had he missed him?

“Yeah, well, you’re not supposed to be here either,” he countered, pretending at a calm he no longer felt.

“Demon, in case you forgot. I’m supposed to do what I’m not supposed to do.”

Salathiel opened his mouth to respond but found no real way to reply to a word jumble like that. So he struck the demon down instead with a decisive crack of ethereal power and sent it back to Hell. He felt a bit bad about that. He didn’t really have anything against the Fallen, that one just had the misfortune of catching him when he was feeling more than a little jumpy. He wasn’t used to feeling jumpy.

He probably should have taken it as a sign. He’d been spotted as an interloper the moment he set foot in Eden. It would be best to cut his losses and head back before someone else saw him. The problem was, there was still so much he wanted to see. Namely, the angel that was supposed to be standing guard. And yes, he knew that was the very last person he should have sought out but he wouldn’t have been there in the first place if he let such quibbles hold him back.

He waved his hand to miracle the unsettled earth back into place so that it looked like the demon had never been there at all. Better, in fact, for the way the grass stood a little taller and greener at the touch of his miracle. He spared it a brief smile before he took wing once more. He flew low at first, letting his fingers graze the treetops, and then caught a thermal draft that carried him up to the top of the wall.

The angel there smiled blandly at him. He blinked a pair of eyes as blue as the newly minted sky, eyes like a nebula the seraph had once made with a color impossible to pin down, and then those same eyes widened.

“Oh! Oh my heavens. I didn’t see- you’re- hello,” the blond angel stammered. He held a hand over his chest as though actually dependent upon the heart beating inside of his corporation. He needed to take a few shallow breaths before he could say more. “I’m so very sorry if I seem out of sorts. I wasn’t expecting anyone…?”

“Salathiel,” the seraph provided with a polite dip of his head.

“Aziraphale, Principality, Guardian of the Eastern Gate,” came the response, complete with a fluttering smile and outstretched hand. Salathiel gladly took the hand and offered a wide smile of his own. “As I was saying, Salathiel, I didn’t think there were any other angels here.”

Salathiel scratched the back of his neck. “I’m, uh, not really here on department business. Between you and me.”

Aziraphale’s smile faltered. “You’re not?”

“Yeah, finished with all my official business. Stars made and all,” Salathiel said, waving his hands vaguely and no longer meeting those shining eyes. “Not really much to do after that. Figured I’d see what all this new creation was about. Wasn’t the only one with that thought, I guess, with that demon lurking about.”

“Demon!” It was then that Salathiel noticed the other angel had a flaming sword which he made a point of brandishing. “I didn’t know there were any demons about. Where is it?”

For all that Aziraphale swung that sword around, it didn’t look much like he wanted to use it. Well, Salathiel could help with that. “Nothing to worry about. I smited it. Smote? Whatever. Gone. Back down Below.”

Aziraphale sighed in relief and immediately shrank from his uneasy fighting stance. “Oh good. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Really. Like I said, not supposed to be here technically speaking. Not here for anything bad,” Salathiel assured. In theory, an angel wasn’t supposed to be able to do anything bad. That’s what demons were for. The problem being, if angels couldn’t do anything bad, there wouldn’t have been demons in the first place. Salathiel wasn’t all too eager to join their ranks, having just… smitten one. Seemed like a bad first impression. “Only wanted a look around, is all.”

Aziraphale’s smile brightened once more. “Well that’s alright, I’m sure, so long as you don’t trouble the humans. They can startle quite a bit if you simply drop in on them, poor dears. It’s why I’ve tried to keep my post up here.”

“Won’t even know I’m there, I promise.” Salathiel’s wings trembled with sudden excitement. He was ready to fly back down into the garden when something else occurred to him. “Anything else I should be aware of? Like I said, don’t want to cause any trouble. Can’t really avoid it, though, if I don’t know what it is.”

“No, I don’t suppose you can.” Aziraphale lifted his sword once more and used it to point to a tree in the center of the garden. “That is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Word from the top is that its fruit is strictly off limits.”

“Knowledge of-” Salathiel bit off the rest of the statement. He’d been about to ask the sense in that, given that they had only a moment before agreed that you couldn’t avoid doing wrong if you didn’t know what wrong was in the first place. Of course, that would be questioning orders and from the very top at that. Best to keep that one to himself. “Tree bad. Got it.”

“Indeed,” Aziraphale said with an accompanying nod. “Now I had better get back to guarding. If one demon tried to sneak in, there’s no saying when another might try the same.” He glanced sidelong at Salathiel. “Not that-” He spun the ring on his pinky finger and then tugged slightly at his sleeve hem. “I don’t mean to sound like I’m shooing you off. It was a pleasure meeting you. We… we haven’t met before, right?”

“Nah. Lot of stars up there. Kept me too busy to mingle.”

Aziraphale’s pink lips widened into a charming circle. “You did say you made the stars, didn’t you. I was still too surprised at you being here for that to really sink in.”

“I mean, not all of ‘em but yeah.”

Salathiel swept his arm wide to rain stardust into Aziraphale’s cloud of white blond curls. This made the other angel’s eyes widen. A smile that lit up his whole face appeared and brought a rosy hue to the apple’s of his cheeks.

“Well, they’re beautiful. Have you seen them from here? No, I suppose you haven’t if you’ve only just arrived. But you should! They’re gorgeous from up there, of course,” he said, pointing to indicate Heaven, “but they’re something else from here. They make me feel so big and so small all at the same time. Which might not sound pleasant but I assure you it is. It’s quite a singular experience, to gaze on them from the vantage point for which they were created.”

The pink in Aziraphale’s cheeks deepened to red. “Listen to me go on, as if you need _ me _telling you what the stars look like. I’m sorry. I’m holding you up now.”

Salathiel found it impossible to respond immediately. The world felt suddenly off kilter. He felt like he did when the heart of a new star formed in his palm, all filled up with the light of what it would become. He was tempted to launch himself back into the heavens to create a star out of that feeling. To name it Aziraphale. Which was ridiculous… wasn’t it? He really shouldn’t have spent so much time alone if it meant he was going to gape like a fool at every new angel.

He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, uh, no problem. I’ll just-” He thumbed back at the garden. One decisive flap of his wings brought him into the air. Before flying down again he blurted out, “I’ll come back tonight? To look at them with you? The stars, that is.”

“That sounds delightful, my dear.”

And with that, Salathiel fell. He tucked his wings in and dropped like a dart through the trees to escape the mortification of the way his face burned. It was only as some bushy tailed something or other went skittering off that he remembered he’d promised not to startle the humans. He had also meant not to draw attention to himself and then he’d gone and chatted up the first angel he’d seen. He shrugged. Not too late to do things right.

Seemed to him the easiest way to go unnoticed was to look like something that belonged. Since there was only meant to be the one angel in Eden, his current form was right out. He supposed he could tuck his wings away but if the humans thought he was one of them that would probably cause more problems. No, something else from the garden would be the best way to go.

He considered the animals he’d seen and the ones he’d known were planned in the latter days of creation. Unicorn could be fun but it was unquestionably flashy and he was hoping to keep a low profile. A bird was an obvious choice and would give him a good vantage point to explore. The only issue being that it was too obvious a choice. He’d done the flying thing. Go big or go home and he wasn’t of any mind to go home at the moment.

The barest hint of movement caught his eyes from a low hanging branch. “Ah, yes. That’ll do,” he murmured before concentrating on changing his form. Scales sprouted in waves and a massive gold and white serpent flopped unceremoniously into the lush undergrowth. “Now thissss isss a change in perssspective.”

He wasn’t truly a snake so much as a snake shaped angel, so the world hadn’t shifted as much as it might have. However, things were about as far from the norm as they could be. He squirmed experimentally and after some trial and error figured out how to move about. He slithered slowly at first, enjoying the feel of the moss under his belly and the shift from cool in the shade to blissful warmth in the dappled sunlight on the forest floor.

He lifted his head to get a better look about. He couldn’t see so much as a patch of blue through all the plants. The garden, which had already looked lush, was now an absolute riot of greenery. His tongue flicked out instinctively and he would have blinked in shock if he still had eyelids to do so. Space was scentless by nature and Heaven was relatively sterile by design, but Eden was almost overwhelming. He dropped his head to continue forward. He had a stargazing appointment that night and there was a lot of ground he wanted to cover before then.

The variation of life in Eden seemed endless. There were new creatures great and small everywhere Salathiel looked and supporting them, limitless types of plants. Salathiel would drift one way to investigate something that had caught his eye only to be pulled in another direction by something else. With so much to see and only one thing to avoid, he could have easily spent a literal eternity there.

Unfortunately, while Salathiel might have understood the delicate balance that was needed to set the stars in the sky, there were some forces that were beyond his control. Namely, in this case, the inextricable pull of curiosity. He hadn’t meant to go toward the tree. In fact, he’d made a concerted effort to stay away from it, but when he saw it looming in the midst of a small clearing, there was nothing he could do to make himself turn away. He lifted his head and stared, all the while knowing he shouldn’t.

“Aren’t you lovely. I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”

Gentle as the voice was, Salathiel could have jumped out of his skin at the sound of it. He’d thought himself the only creature in the area. Which was, when he thought about it, another fact that should have warned him off. Instead he found himself looking at one of the two humans. Eve, if he wasn’t mistaken. She was standing on another edge of the clearing and padded softly across the grass to get a better look at him.

She reached out a hand and ran it smoothly over his head and down his neck while he remained transfixed. “I’ve seen similar but none quite like you. Just who are you?”

“I’m-” It was only as the woman gaped at him that Salathiel realized she probably hadn’t been expecting an answer. Well, too late now. “You can call me... Crawly,” he continued, his voice a low, reassuring hiss.

There, that should cover it. If word got back to anyone Upstairs, they would just think it was a new animal like Eve did. Maybe. Hopefully. For her part, Eve quickly got over the shock of a talking snake. She smiled and stroked his scales once more.

“Are there other animals who can talk, Crawly?” she asked. “There’s only Adam here and while he’s good company, it does get lonely.”

“Jussst me. I think. Don’t know everyone.” He slithered over to the tree, only wishing to get a better vantage point for a discussion. He hung down from a branch that put him at eye level with Eve. “We can talk, if you’d like.”

“I’d enjoy that very much,” she said, joining him under the bough. She ran her hand over one of the ruby red apples and chewed thoughtfully on her lip. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else here. The animals all stay away. Even Adam keeps back.”

This was where Salathiel should have cautioned Eve off, where he should have said to follow the example of the others. Instead he said, “I don’t understand what’s sssso bad about it. Why can’t you know the difference between good and evil?”

Eve pulled her hand back, apparently only realizing she’d reached up to one of the fruits in question. “God said we weren’t to eat it.”

Salathiel knew he shouldn’t press but if anyone knew the answer, surely it was one of those who had been given the commandment in the first place. “Yesss, but why? Seemssss like a useful thing for you to know.”

Eve scrunched up her face in thought. She looked from what she thought to be a serpent, to the apple she’d just caressed, and then down to her hands. When she looked back up, there was doubt coloring her warm brown eyes. “I’m not sure why.”

“How will you do right if you don’t know what’s wrong?” he pressed. It was no wonder God had made such knowledge something that could be consumed. Salathiel felt hungry for answers. He thought of the angels. Or, rather, of the former angels. The Fallen. Bad, wrong, evil- none of that had existed when they were created. Would they still have done what they did if they knew the difference? They were punished for a crime they couldn’t have truly understood. A crime Salathiel still didn’t quite understand. “What if you did a bad thing, meaning to do good? Or a bad thing not really meaning to do anything? What if you were thrown from paradise and never knew why?”

The first clouds of a coming storm passed over Eve’s brow. She wasn’t looking at the serpent in front of her or the tree and its fruit. She clutched a hand over her breast with a frown. “What if that happened to Adam?” Her jaw set and she reached out to the nearest apple. “You’re right. I should know.”

“Wait! I didn’t-”

But it was too late. Eve bit into the apple and humanity’s fate was sealed, as was the fate of the angel who accidentally brought sin to the world.


End file.
